Monsters After Dark at California Adventure Experience

Disney’s California Adventure is home to Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout. Towering over Avengers Campus, the massive structure used to be themed as Tower of Terror, but now it operates as a love letter to the Guardians of the Galaxy.  However, during the Halloween season, this attraction gets an overlay called “Monsters After Dark.”

Disney describes it as:

“Do you have what it takes to save Groot from crazed creatures on the loose?

Amid the chaos of the Guardians of the Galaxy’s rescue attempt, Groot got left behind. Even worse, the Collector’s Fortress is now mired in a total state of emergency—and overrun with menacing beasts.

Your objective? Team up with Rocket to return to the fortress, distract the monsters and escape with his little buddy in tow—but proceed with caution. With the Guardians of the Galaxy involved, the plan is bound to run into a few exciting ups and downs!”

This overlay on Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout starts operating as Monsters After Dark at 3pm and continues throughout the night and into Oogie Boogie Bash.  Monsters After Dark is operating from September 2nd – October 31st.

Essentially, the mechanics are the same – you go up and you fall back down numerous times, but the interactions with Rocket and Groot are different.  Rocket and Groot are the only Guardians of the Galaxy present for the attraction.  We do not get to see the other Guardians in this version of the attraction. Guests are bombarded with monsters that are trying to get Groot at every stop of the ride. Whilst on the attraction, a seemingly heavy metal song entitled “Monsters After Dark” plays (composed by Tyler Bates.)

The cast members place hazard vests with splotches of blood (maybe) on them over the daily uniform for Mission Breakout.

I enjoyed riding Monsters After Dark, but the overlay is not better than the daytime version.  I, personally, like the music selections on Mission Breakout better than Monsters After Dark.  The lack of the other Guardians is noticed as well.  My guess is that they did not want to film another version of the ride?  I would suggest riding it because it is different than the daytime version, and Disney puts on a great show.  If you are going during Oogie Boogie Bash, I would highly recommend waiting until the party starts to ride the attraction since day guests can start riding it as Monsters After Dark at 3pm.  The line was longer between 3pm-6pm.  The posted wait time for us during the Bash was 13 minutes.

Make sure to hold on to your belongings when you experience this attraction including all the trick or treating candy that you collect during the Oogie Boogie Bash.

Have you ever rode Guardians of the Galaxy: Monsters After Dark?  What were your thoughts on this Halloween overlay? Let us know in the comments below.